sleep is a team sport
by kingslayers
Summary: "What about the flirting?" James asks. Marlene's face does something complicated. "That comes under the bad with feelings territory," she says wryly after a moment, but James can't quite shake the feeling that there's more to it that she's not telling him. / Sirius is bad at dealing with emotions, but James might not be as good at recognising them as he thinks. —modern muggle!au


**written for:** the houses competition

 **house:** slytherin

 **category:** short

 **prompts:** James and Sirius [Pairing]

 **word count:** 1894

 **warnings** : some swearing; AU setting — muggle/modern (high school)

 **notes** : so, i haven't written a muggle/modern!au for my order kids in _ages_ and i've really missed it! i just finished an essay earlier tonight, so i sort of thought i'd treat myself and delve back into this kind of world with some of the gang. james is very good at having emotions and expressing his, but may not be quite as proficient at reading them in other people as he thinks he is. he might not even be quite as good at realising them in himself as he thinks, either, but that's less certain than the other aspect.

 **disclaimer** : disclaimed.

* * *

"Oi, Prongs!"

James' head shoots up, looking around blearily. He winces, rubbing at a crick in his neck. _What the hell…?_ Glancing down, he sees his physics textbook, maths textbook and a bunch of notes splayed in front of him, and realises he must have fell asleep while doing homework. _Again_.

Sirius is in the chair next to him, looking amused as he leans back in his chair, though James thinks he detects a hint of concern underneath the smirk. He hadn't been there last time James had looked, so he's pretty sure Sirius had woken him up as soon as he'd noticed him.

"You all right there, Sleeping Beauty?" Sirius teases.

"Peachy," James sighs, but manages a tired smile.

Sirius studies him. "Up all night working on football plays again?" he asks. His voice is a forced casual, but James knows him too well to be convinced by it.

"You know how it is, can't let Coach down," James says instead, choosing not to address the concern underlying Sirius' forced nonchalance. "Quarter-finals next week."

"Yeah, and you're going to fall asleep in the middle of play if you don't sort your shit out," Sirius says wryly, but he doesn't push.

James has very complicated feelings about this aspect of Sirius' personality. On one hand, in situations like this, he definitely appreciates Sirius not pushing. His other friends do it enough—he doesn't need his best friend doing it too, especially when Sirius has just as many bad habits as he does, albeit different ones. On the other hand, though, James is very aware that the reason Sirius doesn't push is more to do with the Blacks' fucked up approach to emotions than it is because of any conscious choice to be chilled out. James doesn't mind that some of his friends aren't very forthcoming when it comes to their emotions. He gets it; not everyone operates the same way he does, bleeding his heart all over the place and being open-handed with trust. It's just… there's a difference between choosing not to wear your heart on your sleeve and being taught from a young age to stifle your emotions, to the point that you're shockingly bad at dealing with them as a teenager, and Sirius falls firmly into the latter camp. It kind of breaks James' heart, but mostly galvanises him to try teach Sirius that it's all right to have feelings.

It occurs to James that Lily and Benjy are the only people in their general social circle, other than James, who deal with their emotions in a healthy—or at least, expressive—way. He frowns.

He chooses to file that away for later, instead electing to respond to Sirius. "I won't fall asleep!" he protests. "The rush of the game will keep me upright and charging! Also, Marlene wouldn't let me."

Sirius snorts. "That's true," he agrees. "Marls would never let you fall asleep in the middle of a match."

"'Course I wouldn't," Marlene agrees immediately, appearing on the other side of James from Sirius. She pulls up a chair and drops into it, propping her feet on James' maths textbook. He considers pulling it away for a moment, before deciding, with a defeated sigh, to just leave it. She grins at him.

"Why's Cap falling asleep in the middle of a game anyway?" she asks, popping a lollipop into her mouth. Sirius eyes her speculatively, straightening slightly, and she rolls her eyes, but throws one at him anyway. She holds one out in offering to James, who hesitates for a moment, then takes it.

He's unwrapping it as Sirius rolls his eyes, gesturing towards James with his own already-unwrapped lollipop. "He keeps falling asleep everywhere because he spends all night devising football plays," Sirius explains.

"James, Coach'll murder you if you fall asleep in a game," Marlene says, sounding entirely too cheerful. She winks. "But if the plays are good, I'm sure he'll tell your corpse he's proud."

James grumbles, but it's good-natured. He knows they're doing it out of concern and, frankly, he'd much prefer their teasing and gently chiding method to the lecture he's certain Emmeline would give him if she heard.

"Yeah, yeah," James mutters, but he grins at them. "Shouldn't you guys be in classes or something?"

Sirius and Marlene exchange a glance. "Jamie," Marlene says, sounding mildly amused, "it's lunch time."

James frowns. "Wait, I _missed_ —" he begins, before cursing. "Shit! I was meant to help Lily with ball prep last period!"

He starts to stand, but Sirius puts his hand on his arm. "Prongs, you just fell asleep on the—God, what is that? Are you trying to study astrophysics after pulling an all-nighter? What the hell?" he demands, before shaking his head. "Whatever, it just proves me right. You go to the infirmary or Seniors' lounge or something, all right, and take a nap on something that won't permanently damage your neck, and I'll let Evans know what happened."

James starts to protest, but Sirius waves his hand at him. "Evans will still want to hang out with you later, Prongs, don't worry. This isn't a limited-time-only sort of thing, yeah?"

"I'll take him to the lounge," Marlene says, standing. "Make sure he _actually_ sleeps, yeah?"

Sirius grins at her, then at James, then leaves to find Lily.

"C'mon Cap," Marlene says, pulling him out of his chair and helping him pack up all his stuff. "Let's go."

They're on their way to the lounge when she glances up at him. "He really cares, you know?" she says softly.

James looks at her, startled. "Pads? Yeah, I know. He's my best mate, Marls," he says, surprised by her interjection.

Marlene pauses, then nods. "I know," she says, shooting him a brief grin. "I just wanted to make sure, like… he's absolutely awful with feelings, he's always been, but he's only being—" she waves her hand around in a gesture that James takes to mean _like this_ , "—because he's worried." She winks at James. "The only two things that'll make Sirius Black proactive—mischief and concern."

"Which one is him flirting with half of our class?" James asks, grinning, but Marlene's face does something unexpectedly complicated.

"That comes under the bad with feelings territory," she says after a moment, and her tone is wry, and she's rolling her eyes, but James can't quite shake the feeling that there's something more to it that she's not telling him.

The feeling stays with him until he falls asleep.

x

When James wakes up, Sirius is leaning against the couch James is sleeping on.

James looks at him closely. After a moment, he realises Sirius has fallen asleep sitting against the couch, and he grins slightly. Sirius looks peaceful like this, James muses, or at least, more than usual. It's not quite the same as true peace, but it still warms James' heart.

He almost can't bring himself to wake him, but when he glances at the clock, he realises he should.

"Sirius," James says softly, shaking Sirius slightly by the shoulder.

Sirius tenses, then moves quickly, breaking James' hold. He seems disoriented for a moment, but spots James and takes stock of his surroundings.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Sirius says, and James lets out an undignified squawk.

"Hey!" James says, half-laughing and half-outraged. " _You_ were asleep, Pads!"

Sirius looks indignant. "I was not."

James crosses his arms, a grin playing at his lips. "Oh yeah? Then how come I just woke you up?"

Sirius pauses, his eyes flicking to the clock. "All right, I may have fallen asleep for a _moment_ ," he says, a slight smirk on his face.

James snorts. "Uh-huh," he says, raising an eyebrow, "just a _moment_."

Sirius doesn't even bother with a response, instead stretching and standing up. James stands to join him.

"How _was_ the nap?" Sirius asks as they leave the lounge and wander down the corridor on the way to James' locker.

"Good," James admits. "I needed that," he adds ruefully, meeting Sirius' eyes, slightly abashed.

Sirius makes a triumphant noise, slinging an arm around James' shoulders. "Yeah, you did," he says, but he sounds happier—less concerned, James thinks—which James counts as a win.

"Yeah, yeah," James says, rolling his eyes. He shrugs himself out from under Sirius' arm to open his locker, twisting in the combination and then whacking it twice in its sweet spot. Finally, it slings open, and James grabs his textbook for his final period. His attention is caught by a folded note, and he unfolds it.

"Love letter?" Sirius asks, eyebrow raised as he spots the paper in James' hand.

"Nah," he says, shaking his head. "It's from Lil—said she'll meet me after school at the diner to get it all sorted."

"Why didn't she text you?" Sirius asks, cocking his head.

James frowns, then checks his phone. It's dead. "No battery," he says, holding it up to Sirius, who rolls his eyes.

"What's the bet that you drained the battery taking selfies with the Snapchat filters?" Sirius teases.

James checks Sirius with his hip. "Oi, those filters are the _gift that keeps on giving_ ," James informs him dramatically.

Sirius snorts.

Something from earlier in the conversation clicks in James' head, and he lets out an incredulous laugh. "Who the hell would have given me a love letter?"

Sirius shrugs, shifting slightly. "I dunno, Evans?"

James snorts. "Doubtful. Very doubtful." It's not that he wouldn't _want_ her to—it's just that he can't imagine her doing it. He's not sure how he feels about the idea now, either. Don't get him wrong—if you'd asked him last year if he'd like that, he would have said yes in a heartbeat. It's just… he's spent so long _liking_ Lily without really getting to be her friend. They've always been in the same friend group, but he'd never been her friend the same way he was with the Marauders, Marlene and Emmeline… at least, not until this year. Now, he's actually friends with her, and it's really nice. He likes it so much, in fact, that it's sort of difficult to think about the idea of love letters, or romance in general, really. It's just something that he associates so strongly with a time from before he was friends with Lily that it almost feels like regression. He thinks about Sirius' words again. He really doesn't know how to feel about the idea of getting a love letter from Lily Evans… it's a foreign concept, absolutely, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice.

He makes a face. This is more confusing than he'd thought.

Sirius evidently doesn't notice, because he continues the conversation from before. "I reckon Evans would, but even if not, Prongs, you're the ruddy football captain. I'm _pretty_ sure that _someone_ might want to send you a love letter," he says, rolling his eyes at James, but affectionately jostling him in the shoulder. It warms James up, the way moments of Sirius' affection always do. It's not like James ever doubts Sirius' affection or loyalty—it's just that Sirius isn't always particularly good at or comfortable showing it, and it's always nice when he does.

"Yeah, all right, punk," James snorts, but he's grinning, and he jostles Sirius back affectionately. In this moment, there's nowhere that James would rather be.

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 **a/n.** please don't favourite without reviewing, and please leave a review if you've read this far.


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